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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29391183">A Woman Cut in Two</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/luna_sol/pseuds/luna_sol'>luna_sol</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, F/F, Family, Gen, Loss/Grief, M/M, Reflection, Self-Reflection</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:27:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>600</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29391183</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/luna_sol/pseuds/luna_sol</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a woman cut in two by his window. Limned in moonlight, she is every bit as glorious and vicious as the others have recounted. Yet, Booker can see a fragility in her, a hesitancy - were they not cursed with immortality, she would not suffer herself to live.<br/>--<br/>Quỳnh-centric piece: 100 word drabbles in the POV of each guard in relation to Quỳnh.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Woman Cut in Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/dedicate/gifts">dedicate</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey folks, I thought I'd celebrate Lunar New Year with a Quỳnh-centric piece. One 100-word drabble in the POV of each guard, including a bonus from Quỳnh herself. Happy Lunar New Year to all those that celebrate it (and Happy Tết to our lovely Quỳnh).</p><p>(Look, @dedicate, I hit two in time for CNY, isn't that something? XD)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nile dreams of her still, glimpses and pieces. It is not always of freezing water and drowning, but sometimes of boiling heat and verdure. The only reason she knows the new dreams are also about Quỳnh is because of that bone-chilling rage and pain. It feels as if there is a shroud over Quỳnh, both in life and in dream, and Nile is loath to disturb it. Her new family needs some time to recover and Nile doesn’t want to alarm them, or get their hopes up, for no reason. Nile prays that her dreams will bring her clarity soon.</p><p>--</p><p>For all that she could fight like a pit viper, Quỳnh also had an appreciation for the arts. It would never take much to cajole her into sitting for him - as long as he could duck the projectiles. After, Joe had searched out his entire collection to give to Andromache. He will never forget the look of utter desolation on her face when the sketches also ended up overboard. Joe offered to draw Quỳnh again from memory, but Andromache had flinched and declined. They never talk about it again, but Joe is ever-so-grateful for Nicky’s continued presence in his life.</p><p>--</p><p>There are some ingredients that Nicky never looks at when he goes shopping. Because to reach for them, to bring them home, is to reopen the raw, gaping wound that is their lost sister. Rather than mourn her every moment she is gone, Nicky tries to honour her every time he cooks for their family. Quỳnh had a palate as vibrant as her personality, and they often bickered over flavour. Still, he remembers the night she shared the story of her country’s kitchen gods - it was a love story in the end. Because food made with love always tastes better. </p><p>--</p><p>There is a woman cut in two by his window. Limned in moonlight, she is every bit as glorious and vicious as the others have recounted. Yet, Booker can see a fragility in her, a hesitancy - were they not cursed with immortality, she would not suffer herself to live. Five hundred years, trapped beneath water. Booker’s grief pales in light of hers. She has one foot in this world and one foot out, nothing to tether her. Booker offers to get in contact with Andy for her, only once, and those terrible eyes had looked to him and asked ‘who?’</p><p>--</p><p>Andy can’t remember her face sometimes - can barely remember the colour of her eyes, nor the sound of her voice. She remembers only the strength in that deceptively small frame, but not its curves and edges. There are facts she knows to be true (she <b>loves </b>Quỳnh), but the finer details slip through her grasp just like the ebbing tide. Even the sharp, stringent cries of their last time together has dulled and faded. It cripples Andy with loss anew. Andromache doesn’t deserve forgiveness, or salvation, she knows, but every part of her craves seeing Quỳnh again before her end. </p><p>--</p><p>Quỳnh doesn’t know him, not really. Only caught glimpses in her dreams every time she drowned - a snapshot into his life before being ripped out as the water takes her under again. She knows the basics. She knows that Booker can forge anything she needs to get by in this new life. She knows that he never gave her up to <em> die</em>, alone and unwanted, like their <em> millenia </em> together meant <em> nothing</em>. She knows that he is broken. There is a new girl that she doesn’t care for, because she can see Andromache through her. (And Quỳnh drowns all over again.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Comments and kudos are love &lt;3<br/>Please let me know if I'm missing any tags or warnings. Thanks for reading~</p></blockquote></div></div>
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